THE INFINITE SEA 



GEOGRAPHICALLY, of course, the sea is not infinite. 

 Its moods, however, are demonstrably endless. If 

 each tide were to take exactly twelve hours to rise to 

 the flood and sob back to the ebb, a great part of the 

 sea's changeableness would be lost. But missing 

 coincidence with the sun's movement by twenty 

 minutes, there must be thirty-six tides, eighteen full 

 days before to-day's full tide will be repeated, by 

 which time the days will be so appreciably shorter 

 that, though clock time is kept, sun time will still be 

 missed, while the varying height and speed of the 

 tide during the sway of one moon is another factor 

 that seems to postpone for ever the recurrence of a 

 particular ocean scene. To these regular variants 

 add the altogether incalculable changes of wind, 

 cloud, sunshine, rain, mist, and atmospheric texture, 

 and we have a complexity of variability that makes 

 even a mile of sea-coast an endless panorama of 

 surprise. 



It is our delight this holiday-time to have a portion 

 of the sea continually under gaze to sleep with the 

 sound of its angry or placid goings and comings in 

 our ears ; to have its briny breath in the nostrils 

 without intervention of wall or window ; to fall asleep 

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